1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein are directed to natural language communication with a computer, and more particularly to methods for generating A databases that links language and punctuation with concepts that allow a computer to communicate using natural language and to take appropriate action in response to requests and directives.
2. Background
Developing a machine capable of understanding human thought and natural language has been the goal of computer science since Alan Turing first proposed the Turing Test in 1950; however, the ability to develop such a machine has remained elusive. Conventional computer programs can process text and do word search and speech to text at a high level, no current program is able to understand in any real depth the meaning incorporated in text. In co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/429,199 (the '199 application), entitled “Systems and Methods for Natural Language Communication With a Computer,” filed Apr. 23, 2009, a database medium is presented that allows such a machine to be implemented. As described in the '199 application, the implementation of such a machine is dependent on a database implementation of what can be term a fifth medium, or M5 database.
Several examples methods for developing an M5 database are discussed in the '199 application. Some of these methods will be discussed or summarized below, but to briefly recap: the systems and methods described in the '199 application views all three language elements: lexical words, grammaticals, and punctuation marks simply as symbols for concepts, as operands in an algebraic expression. Language is the choreography of thought; language comprises precise instructions for building complex concepts in the mind of a second person. Accordingly, when a sensible language expression spells out the series of binary mental operations needed to construct a complex concept, it is using the methods of algebra. But, unlike in algebraic expressions, in language expressions the operators are missing and must be reinserted by the listener. In other words, to understand written or oral communication, a listener must perform a series of binary mental operations on the concepts presented in the communication to construct a complex concept in their minds.
An M5 database comprises the equivalent of these mental operations such that a computer can parse textual input just as a human would.